Does IT truly play a critical role in driving employee engagement in today’s digital first business environment? Cyril Boisard, People Director, Workleap weighs in with a few observations and thoughts:
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Tell us about yourself and more about Workleap…how has it evolved over the years?
My journey at Workleap spans over seven years, beginning in HR, talent management, and coaching leaders. I’ve advanced through various roles, culminating in my current position as People Director, leading the HRBP’s team. Blending my Workleap tenure with my background in software engineering, I’ve gained comprehensive insights into organizations’ HR technology needs, focusing on solutions that enhance employee efficiency and optimize business operations.
Since joining Workleap, we’ve rapidly expanded our offerings to five products through acquisitions, doubled our workforce, and transitioned to fully remote operations. Our mission is to make work simpler for everyone. We provide simple employee experience software that streamlines talent management and productivity tools adoption.
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What are some of the biggest challenges you see when it comes to employee engagement as of today? What tips would you share to help address these?
The post-COVID shift to remote and hybrid work has profoundly impacted employee engagement. Four years on, we’re still grappling with its effects on employee experience. This new paradigm has complicated alignment, culture preservation and effective communication, while also making career development more challenging. Employee engagement wanes when individuals feel disconnected from company culture, missing crucial experiences such as cross-organizational networking and participating in live training opportunities.
A recent report we did with The Starr Conspiracy found that organizations with higher employee experience investments are 1.5x more likely to have a positive employee outlook in areas like training managers on providing feedback, fostering open communication, and creating feelings of accomplishment and fulfillment in the workplace.
To tackle these challenges, organizations should implement clear yet flexible workplace policies. A robust onboarding program is vital, especially for new hires and people returning from long-term leave, to set the right tone and expectation in a remote environment while fostering connection and growth. This requires leaders to collaborate closely with managers, equipping them to effectively engage remote teams.
Often overlooked, IT plays a crucial role in employee engagement. HR must partner with IT to optimize the digital employee experience. Misaligned tools and technologies can hinder performance and engagement. Therefore, HR and IT collaboration is essential to provide technological solutions that meet employees’ needs and expectations.
Can you throw light on some of the most impactful employee engagement programs you’ve seen in B2B SaaS?
At Workleap, we’ve implemented several effective employee engagement initiatives. Our flexible work policy, allowing autonomy in scheduling and location while maintaining core collaboration hours, has significantly enhanced job satisfaction. We introduced bi-annual gatherings and leadership days to boost employee engagement, foster a stronger sense of community, and support the development of our leaders.
Onboarding is crucial for employee engagement. Our comprehensive program creates ambassadors from day one, setting clear expectations for long-term success. It interactively covers company culture, expectations and our shared vision. We emphasize open communication channels, using tools like Workleap Officevibe for direct feedback and transparent dialogue between employees and leadership.
The key to our successful engagement strategy lies in providing flexibility, maintaining clear communication, and offering ample growth opportunities. These initiatives not only boost engagement but also align with the evolving expectations of the B2B SaaS workforce.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the impact of AI on employee engagement?
AI is revolutionizing employee engagement, offering personalized, timely learning experiences. It enables ‘learning on the job’ by analyzing employees’ skills, performance and career goals to recommend tailored development paths. For example, AI can suggest targeted resources to address specific skills identified for improvement during performance reviews.
Moreover, AI is transforming skills mapping and career development. Analyzing current skills, predicting future needs and identifying gaps, AI can help create personalized skill development journeys for every employee. This approach enhances manager-employee relationships and allows organizations to proactively upskill their workforce in line with future business needs.
At Workleap, we view AI as a powerful tool to simplify work. By empowering employees to be more innovative, customer-centric and focused on high-value tasks, AI isn’t just improving engagement—it’s reshaping the very nature of work.
Tell us about some of your recent product innovations…what’s in store for users in terms of future expectations from Workleap?
At Workleap, we’re building a cohesive platform where our tools integrate seamlessly for a comprehensive, insightful experience. A key example is the integration of our recently acquired Pingboard, an industry-leading organizational chart and employee directory, with Workleap.
This integration enriches our people analytics by combining employee experience and organizational data. Our products, like Workleap Officevibe, track employee engagement, sentiment and feedback, while Pingboard provides detailed organizational structures, roles and relationships. Together, they offer a nuanced, actionable view of engagement within the organizational context, enabling analysis across teams, departments and hierarchical levels. This allows HR leaders and managers to pinpoint issues or successes tied to specific structures and make targeted interventions.
Our integrated approach enhances predictive capabilities, anticipating how organizational changes might impact employee satisfaction and performance—crucial for strategic planning and change management.
Looking ahead, users can expect even more seamless integration across our suite, with AI-driven recommendations for improving engagement and organizational effectiveness. We’re focused on making this wealth of data accessible and actionable for all levels of management. Our goal is to move beyond measuring engagement to actively fostering an engaged workforce through data-driven insights and actions.
Five thoughts you’d share with everyone in HRTech before we wrap up?
- Leverage technology to enhance communication and collaboration, especially in hybrid/remote environments. In today’s distributed work landscape, technology is no longer just a facilitator; it’s the backbone of employee interaction. HR leaders must champion the adoption of tools that enable communication and foster a sense of connection and shared purpose. This might involve implementing virtual collaboration spaces, asynchronous communication tools, or AI-powered platforms that can help bridge time zones and cultural gaps. The ultimate goal is to create a digital workplace as engaging and productive as a physical one.
- Embrace predictive analytics for HR. Many HR departments are sitting on a goldmine of data and need to realize its full potential. Predictive analytics can transform this data into actionable insights, helping forecast turnover risks, identify high-potential employees, and predict future skill gaps. By adopting a data-driven approach, HR can shift from reactive to proactive, strategically aligning people management with business objectives. However, balancing this data use with ethical considerations and transparency is crucial.
- Prioritize the employee onboarding experience. First impressions matter tremendously and can make or break employee engagement. The onboarding process sets the employee’s entire journey with your organization. In our current remote and hybrid work environments, creating a compelling and comprehensive onboarding experience is more challenging but also more critical than ever. But, organizations can leverage technology to create personalized, engaging onboarding journeys beyond the first week.
- Empower employees through self-service HR tools and chatbots to create a seamless experience. The modern workforce expects consumer-grade experiences in their professional lives. By providing intuitive, accessible self-service tools, you improve efficiency and give employees a sense of autonomy and control. This could range from AI-powered chatbots for common HR queries to sophisticated platforms for managing benefits, learning and development, or career progression. The key is to make these tools as user-friendly and comprehensive as possible, reducing friction in the employee experience.
- While data and analytics are invaluable, keep sight of the human element. Make sure to maintain personal connections and understand your people beyond the numbers. In the rush to digitize and quantify everything, it’s easy to forget that, at its core, HR is about human relationships. Regular check-ins, empathetic listening, and creating spaces for genuine connection should remain central to any HR strategy, no matter how technologically advanced it becomes.
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Cyril Boisard is the Director of People at Workleap, where he ensures that he and his team are keeping pace with building a positive and performing work environment and actively setting the standard for it. Cyril’s career path has been marked by a series of transformations, beginning in electronic engineering, where he honed his skills in research and development to pursuing a master’s degree in computer science and working as a Director of Software engineering. His path led him from consulting abroad in France to agile coaching and his diverse experiences across multinational corporations and small web agencies enriched his understanding of the delicate balance between business needs and people management. In his current role at Workleap, Cyril combines his diverse experiences, blending technical expertise with a deep understanding of business and talent management to focus on developing and executing HR strategies that support Workleap’s business strategy while championing continuous improvement. With over 20,000 happy customers in more than 100 countries, Workleap is a must-have for businesses looking to create a more engaging and successful workplace.